Aloe vera is a succulent, and nearly every indoor aloe problem traces back to treating it like a leafy houseplant instead of a desert plant.
The single most important factor is drainage. Aloe roots rot quickly in soil that stays wet, so it needs a fast-draining cactus or succulent mix, not standard potting soil, and a pot with a real drainage hole — no exceptions, regardless of how attractive a sealed decorative pot looks. If the only good pot is sealed, use it as a cachepot and keep the plant in a plastic nursery pot with drainage inside it.
Water deeply but infrequently: soak until water runs from the drainage hole, then let the soil dry out completely before watering again. That's often every two to three weeks indoors, and even less in winter when the plant is semi-dormant.
Too much water and too little look different once you know which is which. An overwatered aloe goes soft rather than limp: the lower leaves turn pale and water-soaked, and the base browns and gives way under a thumb. A thirsty one stays firm and thins - the leaves flatten and curl in at the edges, and they fill out again within days of a proper soak.
An aloe caught early is usually worth saving. Take it out of the pot, cut away every soft brown root and any mushy tissue at the base, leave it dry and out of its pot for a day or two so the cuts seal over, then repot into dry cactus mix and wait a week before watering. Putting a rotting aloe straight back into damp soil is the usual second mistake.
Light matters more than most people expect. Aloe kept in low light stretches — the leaves splay flat and reach toward the nearest window instead of standing upright — and rarely looks good long-term. A bright, sunny windowsill, ideally with a few hours of direct light, keeps the rosette compact.
Get there gradually, though. A plant that has spent months in a dim room and goes straight onto a south-facing sill can scorch, which shows as dry brown or reddish patches on the sides facing the glass. An hour or two more sun a day over a couple of weeks avoids it.
Mature plants throw offsets around the base. Once one has a few leaves and roots of its own it can be separated at a repotting and potted up in the same dry mix. Before that it is still living off the parent.
The gel inside a leaf is genuinely useful for minor kitchen burns, but it's worth knowing the yellow latex just under the skin of the leaf is a skin irritant for some people — rinse a cut leaf before using the gel.